Excellence Scholarships for PhD in Global Food Security, University of Hohenheim, Germany

Excellence scholarships for PhD students to participate in PhD Program “Global Food Security” at the Universität Hohenheim, Germany

The Food Security Center (FSC) is a university center of excellence in development collaboration at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany. FSC is one of five excellence centers of the program “exceed – Higher Education Excellence in Development Cooperation”, which is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany. FSC’s mission is to make effective and innova-tive scientific contributions in research, teaching, and policy advice to eradicate hunger and achieve food security in collaboration with partner research and education organizations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and national and international development and research organizations. Thematically, FSC’s activities deal with issues of sustainable food availability, food access, food use, and food utilization.

Scholarship descriptionFSC awards 12 scholarships for PhD students from developing countries (see OECD DAC list) for a period of 36 months, beginning September 01, 2011 (with a month German language course). The Center wishes to attract outstanding PhD students pursuing a career in academia or development collaboration. The scholarship aims at increasing their previously gained scientific knowledge and skills relevant to food security related issues. The successful candidates will receive scholarships for participating in the PhD program “Global Food Security” to conduct their doctorates.

The scholarship is given for a stay at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany. The monthly grant is EUR 1,000 (for the time in Germany, during the field research there will be a different rate applicable). In addition, FSC pays for traveling to/from Hohenheim. Health insurance and other costs must be paid for from the stipend.

Selection criteriaBesides the general selection criteria for the PhD program “Global Food Security” (see announcement of the PhD program “Global Food Security”), the following criteria have to be met additionally, if applying for an “Excellence scholarship”:

* Latest academic degree completed no more than 6 years prior to start of scholarship; * Indication for return to his/her home country and institute; * Be a national of a developing country according to OECD DAC list.

ApplicationThe applicant has to submit the application documents for the PhD program “Global Food Security” and indicate in FSC’s application form, whether s/he applies for an “Excellence scholarship”. In addition to the general application, the applicant has to provide proof regarding the additional selection criteria mentioned above.

The deadline for the application for an “Excellence scholarship” is September 30, 2010.

There is one joint application and selection process. Only those applications are accepted, which follow the application instruction and are submitted with FSC’s application format (see FSC’s webpage).

FSC will confirm the receipt of all (complete) applications (i.e., if an application is not complete, FSC will not consider it and will not confirm receipt of the application).

The selection of the candidates will be in the beginning of December 2010, the program will start on September 1, 2011.

All accepted applications will be selected according to the following criteria:

1. Fulfillment of announcement criteria of the PhD program “Global Food Security” (cf. “Admission” and “Application”); 2. Quality of proposal and project feasibility.

For all preselected candidates, FSC will look for a supervisor at the University of Hohenheim. Only after a professor of the University of Hohenheim has accepted the candidate, s/he will be ultimately selected and invited to join the PhD program “Global Food Security” and – if applied for a scholar-ship – awarded an “Excellence scholarship”.

The selected applicants will be contacted no later than December 17, 2010. Please be aware that FSC will contact only successful candidates.

Please try to find answers to potential questions yourself before contacting FSC. Please keep in mind: FSC’s Scholarship Program and the application process is described in depth in the announcement and in this application form. For important questions, please write an email to fsc-scholarships@uni-hohenheim.de – and please only to this mail address!